Homeschool Adventures | Amy Scott's Thoughts

Breezing Through September! September 28, 2026

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Family Time,Travels,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 2:22 pm

I can’t believe we find ourselves nearing the end of the September! The first half of the month was a bit of a whirlwind. The second half of the month has been much quieter, but not without a few highlights to share. Our busy schedule gave way to hunting season. My husband does archery elk hunting and is usually out in the woods quite a few days in September. I hold down the fort at home while Jeremy wanders in the woods. Owen joined Jeremy for a few hunting adventures. Owen always hopes to find elk, but really he goes out to find owls. He was able to spot many owls, elk, and even a black bear this season. Graham tagged along one evening and saw nothing. Sometimes the animals are active, sometimes… not so much. While they saw many elk this season, Jeremy wasn’t able to take a shot this year. Poor guy!

After early elk season ended, a major windstorm ripped through SW Washington. I got up on Friday morning and did all the things I hoped to do with power – take a shower, make a blackberry crisp, vacuum… I had about two hours of productivity before the house went dark. Thankfully, my parents have a generator that kicks on automatically when the the power goes out. The boys hopped between houses to pass the powerless hours. Our cell reception at home is terrible without internet support. We had pickleball in the afternoon and no way to know if it was still on. We left our house and drove down the hill to get the text that pickleball was indeed canceled. The courts had no power (like a great deal of our county). While we were out of the house, we got more gas for our generator. We fired it up when we got home to save the food in the fridge and freezer. After 9 hours, the power did come back on before bedtime. I may have danced and sang in celebration! What a crazy day!

Saturday morning, Jeremy and the boys helped my parents fill potholes in the driveway. While Owen helped my parents clean up the borrowed trailer, Graham helped Jeremy collect branches that had blown down in our yard. To keep the good times going, the boys also assisted in building a cat tree for my parents’ cat, Tipper. They were very excited to be included in this project. My highlights from Saturday were the sunshine after the storm, running to the library, and making a yummy turkey meal for dinner! I was extra thankful for sunshine and electricity. It was a lovely calm after the storm.

This brings to me Sunday… I wish I had a different update to share. Our day went a bit sideways. Isn’t that life? Church in the morning went well. We have started practicing for our Christmas Musical, Back to the Manger. The kids are having fun learning the new songs and Owen has his heart set on getting a drama part again this year. Once Jeremy got home from church in the afternoon, we loaded up and took a beautiful autumn drive to Seattle. We got to the area with time do a little shopping and eat an early dinner. Our final destination was WAMU Theater to see For King + Country in their The Most Beautiful Colours Tour. Before we reached the theater, Graham mentioned not feeling 100%. We were hopeful the experience would provide a distraction. It was very apparent that his discomfort was growing, not fading, as the concerted started. Owen and I enjoyed the first half of the concert. Poor Graham (and Jeremy as a result) did not. At intermission, we decided the kind thing to do was head home. We were all disappointed this long awaited event didn’t go as planned. Both boys mentioned they enjoyed seeing the band play live. It’s a novelty to hear songs you know from around the house or in the car being performed live. They both mentioned wanting to try again if the opportunity came about… So… Their first concert experience was a bust, but here’s hoping for the future!

Now we have a few days to recover before the calendar flips to October. It’s birthday month for the boys! We’ll have family celebrations and birthday adventure outings. We have hang outs and dinners with friends all over the calendar. October is my favorite month! Praying it will be filled with family, friends, and fun (and also a good amount of pizza, cake, and ice cream). Can’t wait!

We love the almond Kringles at Christmas time. So much fun to pumpkins one this fall! Thank you, Trader Joes!

Might have no power, but I got a blackberry crisp made before the power went out. Priorities!

For King + Country: The Most Beautiful Colours Tour

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The September Whirlwind September 16, 2026

Filed under: Amy's Bookshelf,Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Travels,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 2:34 pm

When it comes to September, I have so many feels. I could write an entire book on September. It’s probably the craziest month of my year. Seriously. September is always a whirlwind. If you couldn’t tell from my lack of posting, I’ve been a bit busy… Ready to jump into the jumble with me? Here we go!

The first week of September was back to school! While we kept up on our studies over the summer, it was back to doing all our subjects, every day. It was back to keeping kids focused and lots of reading aloud. I was certainly tired as I rebuilt my “full day of school” muscles. We made it through the week and kicked off Labor Day weekend by taking our boys to their first ever Seattle Mariners game. We had friends gift us with tickets and it was a very sweet experience! We got to the ballpark as soon as the doors opened. The boys loved the pizza and souvenir sodas they got for dinner. Graham got a churro for a special treat and Owen got popcorn. They collected baseball cards from multiple event staff members. The highlight was they each came away from watching batting practice with official MLB baseballs. These treasured balls are now on display in places of honor in their rooms. The Mariners didn’t win the game, but the boys had a great time despite the loss. We got to sit on the Terrace Club level (which is much nicer than the nose bleed seats we usually sit in). The boys were spoiled by such a great first game!

The next day (Friday), we had our first pickleball league practice. We decided to join a six week league for September into October. Our friends are participating and the timeframe and price were right. We’ve usually done homeschool soccer in the fall, but this year I’m trying to avoid morning commitments that conflict with our prime school hours. Pickleball is in the afternoon so it works perfectly! We’re giving it go for these six weeks. We’ll see if the boys want to continue after that… The courts are covered so we could keep playing into the fall, even once the rain arrives. It’s been fun to try something new for our fall sports season.

After pickleball, we took off for the beach… We did a quick overnight. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset and marionberry pie with my parents. Owen was thrilled to see Sooty Shearwaters swarming the coastline. He’s been waiting to check that bird off his birding list for a while. On Saturday, Jeremy, my dad, and eventually Owen, worked on a few projects around the beach house. I enjoyed finishing a book and taking a walk with my mom. My parents had purchased cinnamon rolls from a local bakery, so we gave our taste testing critique. I thought they were great, but Graham didn’t like the orange flavor. So sad… More for me! We tried a new pizza place in Ocean Park before heading out to run errands and head home.

Over Labor Day weekend, we completed watching the Harry Potter movie series. We skipped a few parts of Deathly Hallows Part One, but we felt comfortable with the kids watching all of Part Two. The boys didn’t love that we skipped certain scenes throughout the series, but it gives them something to look forward to watching when they are older. They can now say they’ve seen all the movies and they are happy about that. We also spent the Monday of Labor Day weekend shopping for my cookie class (more on that in a minute) and doing another lesson in our cooking curriculum (Sloppy Joes).

Last week was Cookie Week! I agreed to teach a Christmas cookie decorating class for our church’s women’s conference. I had to prepare four cookies and decorating supplies for 25 ladies. I also made extra cookies in case the ladies wanted more practice and needed to fill time. Overall, I made 14 dozen cookies. No big deal. Monday (Labor Day) was our shopping day. Tuesday and Wednesday were baking days. Thursday, I decorated example cookies. Friday, I filled piping bags and gathered all my supplies into totes. Saturday, I taught the class! It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. The ladies seemed to enjoy themselves and the attitude of the room was festive. Even though it made for a crazy week, I would be up for doing it again next year.

Women’s Conference lead right into our annual church staff retreat. Sunday, we went to dinner with the team. Monday and Tuesday were full days of meeting, planning, and praying. We took an assessment from The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni. I love assessments! It’s always fascinating to see how people are wired. It’s also helpful to know not only your own strengths and weaknesses, but also of those you rub shoulders with often. Even though the days were big and I often left with a dull headache from thinking so much, it was nice to be included in the conversation alongside Jeremy. I am very excited for the direction of our church and the cool things that are about to happen. It’s a great team and it was an honor to sit among them for a few days. Also, shout out to both sets of grandparents for hanging with our kids so I could participate!

Now for the quieter half of the month!!! Jeremy has some time off for hunting season this next week. I’m no longer juggling my own full calendar. I’ll be able to settle back into routine and wish my hubby well as he heads out into the woods. I’ll be the chill Mom who holds down the fort while Dad is away. The rest of the month should have a totally different vibe than the start. Praise the Lord! I’m glad I don’t have to keep this whirlwind pace up any longer. It’s been good, but it’s been a lot!

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Good-Bye Summer, Hello School! September 1, 2026

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:10 pm

We said good-bye to summer yesterday and hello to school! It was a great summer – truly one for the record books! If you’ve been following my blog this summer, you know we’ve put our suitcases to good use! It seemed like we were always preparing for a trip or recovering from one. When we were home, we were working on our cooking class or swimming with friends. We filled this summer to the brim with so much goodness.

Some recent highlights include a day trip to the coast (right after our Montana road trip) to visit my forever friend, Maggie, and her family. Maggie’s family visits once a year and we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be in the same state at the same time. What a joy! Maggie and I took a long morning walk while the husbands supervised pool time. Then we explored the nearby kite festival and visited the beach. We played a quick game of Wingspan Pocket while the kids played outside. It was a lovely day and we are already looking forward to their next visit!

One of our big house projects was procuring a desk from IKEA. This year, we are using a computer for a few classes. I didn’t think working at the dining room table with both students creating competing noise would work well. Thus, the new school space in the playroom. One student works at the desk while the other works at the dining room table. Two days into our new routine and it’s going well. The kids are very enthusiastic about their new online classes. It’s a novelty at the moment… I wonder if it will wear off? The playroom closet is now mostly storage (all the things I want to hold onto for potential grandchildren – like Duplos and Hot Wheels). The room itself contains our collection of kids games and books. The piano is set-up for daily practice. It really is a multi-purpose room since the boys hardly ever “play” in the space these days. This room continues to change with the many seasons of our family. I love it!

For some local fun, we attended a volunteer appreciation event at our church featuring ice cream from PNW Scoops. This was our first time trying this new local favorite. The wait was long, but the ice cream was good. The crowd that turned out was impressive. It takes a lot of people to make ministry happen at our church. It was special to honor our volunteers with a parking lot party. We were also invited the following weekend to attend a youth pickleball clinic for the grand opening of Cooks Hill Courts. These new covered pickleball courts are going to be quite popular, I’m sure! We hope to possibly join one of their pickleball leagues later this fall. What an exciting new opportunity!

As I mention, we started school yesterday. It was a soft launch with today being our first day back with a full work load. Yesterday was sunny and it felt like summer was holding on… Today, it’s cloudy and cool. Jeremy was out the door early for our our church’s before school program. The whole vibe has felt drastically different from our soft launch yesterday. All the fall feels are real today. The change in schedule and the weather truly have me saying good-bye to summer and hello to school! It’s happening!

Cooking Class: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

No matter the distance, forever friends always!

Remembering Our Mountain-A-Month Summer:
May – Mt. St. Helens
June – Mt. Rainier
July – North Cascades
August – Rocky Mountains at Glacier NP
*“The mountains are calling and I must go” – John Muir*

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Sunriver Surprise! July 28, 2026

Filed under: Amy's Bookshelf,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:22 pm

Our traveling summer continues! The boys got a surprise extra weekend at the beach with Nana and Papa. What a treat! They have been gone a total of 14 days this month. Crazy! 11 days away for Jeremy and I. Our suitcases are getting good use! We had a week at home between our anniversary trip and what was supposed to be a family camping trip. During that time, we hosted many pool swims and hang outs with friends. It seems we are either traveling or hosting in our backyard. It’s been a very fun, but very busy summer. You gotta enjoy the nice days in the PNW while they are here!

Back to the “supposed” family camping trip… Burn bans meant camping without a fire this summer. Boo! We talked with Jeremy’s family and we decided that camping without a fire just wasn’t the same. Not only is it way less enjoyable, it also makes it harder to cook. Most of our camping meals are best cooked over the fire. We tossed out some ideas of how to pivot and, surprisingly, Sunriver was suggested. If you’ve followed my blog for a while you know that Sunriver is a very happy place for our family. We love it! We were last there in October for Owen’s birthday and our boys were disappointed that we didn’t have 2026 plans to return. This surprise opportunity to go to one of our favorite places was just too good to pass up! It was certainly an upgrade from camping!

We stayed in a new part of Sunriver Resort called Caldera Springs. The house was lovely and this new neighborhood came with new amenities. The boys loved exploring two new pools and running amok with their cousins. We took a family bike ride and went on many walks. I love all the paved trails throughout Sunriver. They are always a highlight for me! It’s such a beautiful area to be outside. We played lot of family games – board games, card games, dice games, pool, ping pong… So many games! We also tried duck pin bowling for the first time. It was neat to learn a new style of bowling. Bonus, there was plenty of time to read – either poolside or at the house. Overall, it was a delightful trip! It was completely unexpected and that made it an even bigger blessing.

After Sunriver, we came back home to more backyard hosting. The boys had a friend from church over to swim on Friday and we hosted a Scott family BBQ on Saturday. The pool is always a highlight (no matter the weather), but we also had plenty of yard games. We had croquet, bocce ball, soccer, trackball, and badminton all ready to go! We enjoyed a very tasty BBQ dinner and smores for dessert. We just had friends over again yesterday for more swimming, playing, and my go-to hangout treat this summer – popsicles! I love summertime hosting!

We took a break from our cooking class due to travels. We were able to sneak a lesson in on Sunday and I’m hoping we can get another one in this coming weekend before things pick up again. Our cooking lesson this week was hummus. Our family isn’t a big fan of hummus, but it was interesting to make it from scratch. The boys loved using the blender and Owen discovered he loves pita bread. So funny that Owen fell in love with the side, not the dish. That’s life! Next up in cooking class is a baked snack mix and stovetop popcorn. Owen loves microwave popcorn. He is looking forward to doing a taste test.

There is the update on the latest round of travels! Many more adventures yet to be had as August inches closer!

We are in our final unit of summer school – math! Owen is enjoying his new curriculum so much he pulls it out and does extra problems in his free time. I’m completely shocked!

Welcome to Sunriver! Definitely an upgrade from camping!

Exploring a new pool at the Forest House

My favorite summer vibes – a book by the pool!

Using my time at home this week to plan for September. It will be here in a blink!

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Fridays are Fun! July 2, 2026

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 4:02 pm

Fridays are my favorite day of the week! Jeremy has the day off and it’s a family day. Our field trip adventures often happen on Fridays so we can explore the world together as a family. We will run errands on Fridays (yes, going to Costco is my definition of fun). Occasionally, we’ll be home all day on a Friday. We’ll take care of projects around the house, but at at slow pace. Fridays at home have a very chill vibe. I really enjoy how we spend our Fridays. On my kitchen white board I have our school schedule written out and Friday is listed as a Family Adventure Day. Our homeschool lifestyle allows Fridays to be whatever we need them to be. They are often the highlight of my week!

This last Friday was a great mix of all my favorite things! We got up to the Olympia mid-morning. I’ve been holding on to some Chick-fil-A gift cards that Jeremy and I won at a conference. We love Chick-fil-A breakfast so we decided brunch at Chick-fil-A would be a great way to start our day out. After we ate, we went over to the mall to watch Toy Story 5 at the theater. This specific movie theater has “luxury loungers” that let you put our feet up and lean back. Another special treat! We enjoyed the movie and then splurged on Crumbl Cookies because the churro cookie was on the menu. It’s Jeremy and Graham’s favorite. The kids were hungry so we slid through McDonald’s for FIFA Squishmallow Happy Meals (we have a weakness for Squishmallows). Someone ahead of us paid for our meals and added extra joy and kindness into our day. Next was a stop at Costco to fill up on essentials and samples and then home! A fun day out as a family would have been enough and I would have been happy with a quiet evening at home, but this last Friday was book club! Bonus fun! Book club Fridays are always my favorite! It was wonderful to connect with my mom friends and fellow book lovers. Our conversations are so life-giving and I always come home with more books to add to my TBR. All around, Friday was a fantastically fun day! Hooray!

Okay, what else have we been up to? The weather around Father’s Day and a little after was hot. We were able to host a couple of pool swim hang outs with friends. It’s not often that swimming in our pool feels good in June, so this was a bonus that we took full advantage of. We love sharing our pool with others! We’ve had some quiet moments, especially when the weather changed back to misty and cool. The boys completed our library’s summer reading program and turned in their paperwork for free zoo tickets and coupons. We hosted a dinner and introduced yet another family to The Bible is Funny card game. I made strawberry shortcake for dessert which felt like the perfect treat to wrap up June with. Our next cooking class lesson was guacamole. This lesson was appreciated more than the eggs and salsa. Owen loves guacamole so it was nice to see him devouring what he made instead of just lightly tasting it.

Now we are looking forward to celebrating some special milestones over the next week! First, America’s 250th birthday. Then, my dad’s 70th birthday. Followed by, Jeremy and I’s 20th wedding anniversary. The next week will be one giant celebration! So much fun to look forward to (even though none of those milestones fall on a Friday this year, too bad).

Some family outings call for selfies in the minivan!

Already missing this strawberry shortcake. So good!

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The June Highlight Reel June 21, 2026

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:21 pm

This will be a highlight reel of the many, many celebrations and activities we’ve been a part of recently. Remember that highlight reels are the “highs” of life. They are not the full picture. Not pictured in this post are the headaches, light sunburns, bug bites, seasonal allergy attacks, broken AC, or canceled plans. Nothing too major; just the normal stuff of life. I often focus on the positive moments in this blog. I love sharing our adventures and I would like this blog to be an encouraging place. The internet has enough negativity; I don’t want to add to it. (I also value being authentic in my writing, so it’s definitely a balance!) God is good! We have a very good life. But, in case you ever wonder, we have bad days and hard moments, just like the rest of humanity. If we don’t have the lows, the highs wouldn’t be as amazing. Okay, now that I have the fine print out of the way, I hope you enjoy our highlight reel!

Also Not Pictured: our yummy Chinese food from a favorite restaurant, the many variations of pizza we ate over last weekend, the multiple house tours we gave to collogues and out-of-state family members, the two full carts we checked out with at Costco, the number of greeting cards we signed, chatting at the dining table with a good friend, various games played, making smores in the backyard, and all the changes of clothes I packed for our adventures (just in case we needed them)! It’s been a full couple of weeks. June was definitely a month about people. We’ve had so many meals, celebrations, and adventures with oodles of friends and family. We are super thankful to do life alongside such a wonderful community!

Celebrating Grandma birthday (and Father’s Day) with Chinese food and apple pie!

The Scott brothers did a fantastic job throwing their parents a 50th wedding anniversary party! The room was filled with hundreds of photos from over the decades. Everywhere you looked was a testimony to the legacy of love Bill & Debbie have built for this family.

Super proud of both boys for performing a few piano pieces they’ve learned with Nana to honor her.

Spent the “work” day with Jeremy and the Bethel staff at the Mariner’s game on Thursday! It had been over a decade since I’d been to a game. It was a lot of fun and the Mariners won. Good times!

Going to the ballpark is all about the food… oh wait… I mean baseball… Nope… I mean the food!

Father’s Day Adventure to Mt. Rainier: Can you spot the marmot?

Playing the new game we got Jeremy for Father’s Day!

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Food and Stuff June 10, 2026

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:45 pm

Yes, I named my blog post after Ron Swanson’s favorite discount food outlet (from Parks and Recreation). It seemed to summarize the contents of this blog post quite nicely. We’ve made a whole lot of food and done some stuff. Haha!

As you’ll gather from my photos, we’ve been full steam ahead with our cooking course. We just wrapped up our 4th egg lesson last night. We’ve learned that our boys aren’t a fan of eggs. Having them taste 8 different egg dishes might have created some child trauma. We all remember having to eat “that” food growing up. For me, it was peas. For my boys, it will be eggs. So much self-discovery happening in the Scott family kitchen! This course has taken much more time and energy than I expected. (Go figure, isn’t that life?) With the boys doubling recipes so they can make their own individual offerings, it has also made a lot more dishes than I imagined. I have to remind myself in the moment that kitchens are meant to be used and messes can be cleaned up. It looks a bit like an explosion after each lesson. Cleaning up after cooking is also a life skill to pass on to the next generation. Am I right? We move on to fresh salsa in the next lesson. It’s a little scary how excited the boys are to use knives again. Pray for all our fingers!

On to the stuff… We took a sunny Sunday afternoon drive out toward Mt. St. Helens. The “mountains are calling” to us this summer (thanks, John Muir). We have a to-do of mountains to visit and Mt. St. Helens was the first on the agenda! We explored two visitor centers that we’d never been to before. The Forest Learning Center was sponsored by Weyerhaeuser and focused on reclaiming the wood that fell during the eruption as well as reforesting the area after reclamation. We also visited the Science and Learning Center at Coldwater Ridge. We’ve visited the Johnson Ridge Observatory and the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake in the past. I’m pretty sure we’ve made it to all the Mt. St. Helens related visitor centers now! The drive was beautiful and the up-close view of the mountain is always captivating. It’s crazy to think not too long ago that mountain had a pointy top!

Other newsy news, we met our friends sweet puppies last week! They are so cute and little, but they will grow up to be big dogs like their parents. Unfornately due to allergies, these puppies are a no-go for our family. It didn’t stop the boys from bonding with the two fluffiest ones. We wrapped up spring soccer last week as well. It was a good season, but very short. We were just finding our groove and the season was over. Bummer! We’ve been enjoying family game nights, hanging out with friends, and celebrating with family. June is a month long party with four birthdays, Father’s Day weekend, and my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. We are literally partying every weekend, sometimes multiple times a weekend. It’s definitely an enthusiastic way to roll into summer!

Bo Berry Biscuit Attempt #4: A haphazard combination of muffin mix and pancake mix. Very messy results, but also very tasty!

Wrapping up our Mt. St. Helens outing with Papa Pete’s Pizza! Yum!

Wrapping up spring soccer! So thankful for our faithful grandparent cheering squad!

Cooking 1: Soft-boiled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, and egg salad sandwiches

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So Long 4th & 6th Grade! May 27, 2026

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures — Amy Scott @ 1:50 pm

Since we homeschool almost year-round, we don’t have a true “last day of school.” In May, we wrapped up our 36 weeks of curriculum and our year-end assessment testing. The boys might not have a technical last of school, but they did have a true “last day” for their grade levels. 4th and 6th grade are officially finished! It’s a good feeling!

We enjoyed a short break over Memorial Day weekend and then started summer school this week. For summer school, we jumped into our 5th and 7th grade curriculum. Yay for new books! Summer school is a fun change of pace. We do “batch” subjects instead of all the subjects in one school day. The flow looks two weeks of science and then we switch to two weeks of history. After that, it’s two weeks of language arts. We end summer with two weeks of math. This allows us to get ahead and gives us flexibility for breaks during the regular school year. We take August off, so we do get a “summer break” and that allows us to have a “first day of school” when we go back to our regular schedule in September. It’s all semantics, but I try to make sure we have similar milestones to their peers in public school. Plus, I love the photo opportunities!

We selected Cooking 1 as an elective for the coming school year. I thought we’d start it in the fall. Owen got ahold of the book when it arrived and has spent hours pouring over it. He begged me to start over the summer and I agreed. We started our next family adventure together this last weekend: cooking!!! I haven’t passed on many cooking skills to the boys, because I have very few myself. I’m hoping to learn alongside my boys during this class. Jeremy is our family chef and by doing the class on the weekends, he is able to assist us and offer his expertise. Week one went really well! The boys made scrambled eggs and French toast for the first time. The end results were edible (not just edible, but also tasty)! Praise the Lord! The bonus of this class is the boys have promised to try everything they create. With picky eaters, this is a huge win for us. We’re hoping to broaden their flavor palates as well as their cooking skills through this course.

Being in summer mode means more time to hang with friends and enjoy the great outdoors. Jeremy and the boys got the backyard pool up and ready to go this weekend. It’s too cold to swim yet, but it will be ready when the time comes. We’ve enjoyed having friends over to run amok in our backyard. We’re in the middle of our spring soccer season. We have another state park hike on the calendar with friends as well as outdoorsy travel plans booked throughout the summer. I love the transition to our summer schedule. These are some of my favorite months! A little bit of school and a lot of adventure is a good combination!

Making friends at Lattin’s Country Cider Mill & Farm

Highlight of the farm: watching the male peacocks show off for the ladies!

Kicking off summer school with Cooking 1!

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Soccer, Seattle, & Swim! May 16, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:17 pm

Apparently, I’m into alliterations this month. My last post was Flowers, Food, & Fun! and this one is Soccer, Seattle, & Swim! I’m curious if I can keep the theme going and what letter will represent the next part of our month. Okay, I’m taking mental rabbit trails early on in this post. I’ll rein myself in now!

Spring soccer started a week ago. It’s a short season. Only 4 sessions. The boys were a little nervous because their favorite coach and her kiddos weren’t participating this time. Thankfully, they recognized quite a few kids on their team and they connected well with the new coaches. Homeschool soccer is run like a sports camp. The kids do drills and skills practice for the first half of the time and then they scrimmage the second half. It’s been neat to watch them grow over the last few years. They both mentioned their legs being tired the next day. It had been a while since they ran full tilt! It’s joy to watch them from the sidelines; cheering alongside the grandparents. They are blessed with a faithful cheering squad!

For Mother’s Day weekend, I requested an adventure in Seattle. It had been over a decade since I’d been to Pike Place Market. We’d never taken the boys to this part of a Seattle. It was fun to walk them through the highlights of the market. They saw the first Starbucks, watched cheese being made at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, gobbled a couple of cookies from Cinnamon Works, and got to watch the fishmongers tossing fish into the market. My favorite moment was the look on their faces when we went down to the iconic gum wall below the market. So gross! After taking in the sights (and smells) of the market, we wandered down to the waterfront to purchase tickets for the Great Wheel. The giant Ferris wheel sits on Pier 57 and has great views of the sound and the city. Despite some reservations about the height, a good time was had by all and memories were definitely made.

Mother’s Day weekend was spent celebrating Grandma on Saturday and Nana on Sunday. Celebrating with food is important to our family! On Saturday, we enjoyed Papa Murphy’s pizza and Nothing Bundt Cakes. On Sunday, we had my favorite mac and cheese from the Costco deli and in honor of Nana we got fried chicken from KFC. My love of chocolate cake was fulfilled with both Linda’s Fudge Cake at The Cheesecake Factory on Friday (split with Owen) and a tuxedo chocolate mousse cake from Costco on Sunday. To break up the chocolate, my bundt cake was lemon flavored on Saturday. All were delightful! I love cheese and cake! It was a blessing to share the weekend with our moms. These ladies are dearly loved by our families. They add so much joy to our lives and we are thankful for them!

We did a round of spring swim lessons this week to prepare for summer pool season! Our backyard pool should go up next weekend! Owen is a strong swimmer, but Graham needed a confidence boost. We don’t swim often enough over the winter months to keep swim skills sharp. They both improved their strokes and stamina over the course of the week. Friday was an open swim and the kids got put their swim skills to good use while playing! Jeremy has been out of town the last few days at a men’s conference. Swimming lessons, piano lessons, an afternoon with friends, and special dinner plans have keep us hopping. We’ve tired ourselves out! I’m very thankful that today is a home day and a day of rest. The Lord knew what he was doing when He created the Sabbath! Amen!

3rd Strike, I’m out! I made three attempts at Bo Berry Biscuits (top left is the original from Bojangles). They were all flops in shape and texture. I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board and rethink my strategy!

Pike Place Market for Mother’s Day: My Cookie Monster, especially anything with cinnamon!

The Seattle Great Wheel: There were big feels…

We ate a lot of pizza while Jeremy was out of town!

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Flowers, Food, & Fun! May 5, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:43 pm

There might be more nature and food pictures in this blog post than people pictures! It’s been a fun couple of weeks and I’m excited to share the highlights with you. Let’s start with our last family field trip. It was an extra special one for me. I spent a good part of my childhood years in Woodland, WA. I remember visiting the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens many times. I especially remember touring the historic farm house as a child. (I have a thing for touring old houses; I love them!) It’s been on my field trip list for years to visit these gardens as family. I was so excited when our calendar lined up with the Lilac Days and we could finally make it happen! The gardens smelled amazing. I had forgotten how fragrant lilacs are. We explored every inch of the gardens before waiting in line to tour the house. The house will filled with historic and time-period appropriate lilac décor. Our final stop was the plant sale where Owen purchased his very own lilac. We all agreed that the Sensation variety was one of our favorites. We’ll see if it survives and thrives in our little corner of the world.

After the lilac gardens was book club for me and preparing to be out of town yet again in April. Jeremy and I attend Network Conference in Coeur d’Alene, ID with our pastoral team every year. We gather with churches from around Washington state and northern Idaho. The content is always top notch and it’s a great time to connect as a team and also with friends around our network. The main focus of this conference is also the eating. We are always discussing our next meal. I enjoy the break from cooking and our team appreciates good food. Another highlight of the week away was going to see Project Hail Mary in the theaters. I read the book at the request of a friend and we were supposed to see the movie together. Unfornately, sickness derailed our movie plans and I thought I’d missed my chance to see the movie in theaters. Jeremy and I shared our plans to see the movie on the final night of the conference and most of the staff joined us. So fun! (For those that are wondering, I thought they did a good job of translating the book into a movie.)

We came home from conference and poured ourselves into projects around the house. Jeremy spent most of Friday and Saturday in our yard. He cleared our new fire pit spot and laid down two loads of gravel. The boys helped him. It was fun to watch them all working together. This project isn’t quite complete yet, so I’ll save photos for later. My projects were indoor this weekend. I had lots of laundry to do after our travels. The boys spent the week with Nana and Papa at their house. I had a lot of laundry to catch up on. The travel laundry also corresponded with my bedding washing schedule. My laundry room saw a lot of action this weekend! While I was waiting on loads of laundry, I typed up my school record notes. Every year I create documents that list what curriculum we used, what extracurriculars we joined, what field trips we took, and what books each boy read. All of these notes help document our 180 days of school. As I work to tie up all the loose ends of this school, I’ve also made our complete summer school plan. It’s now all written down in our official record planner. It feels good have these projects tackled! Hooray!

The last adventure to share was more hiking in our local state parks! We’ve been putting our Discover Pass to good use! In April, we made to Ike Kinswa State Park. This month, we hiked at Lewis and Clark State Park. The next park we hope to visit is Seaquest State Park. We’ve been meeting up with friends to make the adventures extra fun. The trails at Lewis and Clark wander through a lovely old growth forest. At the front of the park is a stream that the kids could have spent hours in. I drove home with wet, muddy, and happy kids! I love that we get to enjoy nature like this right down the road from our house!